Mayor Blasts Councilman

Calls on Bruce Tyler to apologize for "derogatory comment."

It wasn’t so long ago that Mayor Dwight Jones’ cool demeanor was viewed as an advantage. Three and a half years and several near-bungled projects later, it’s more of a liability. But contrary to what might be popular belief, hizzoner has a boiling point. How do we know? Because today he told 1st District City Councilman Bruce Tyler to shut his mouth.

“If one of our City employees made such a derogatory comment to another employee, they would receive a written reprimand (at a minimum), and may receive a week’s suspension. While I cannot impose personnel sanctions on a member of the City council, I would strongly suggest that a public apology from you to the employee is in order.”

“I want to tell you unequivocally, I believe you stood up here and lied,” Tyler said.

The details of Tyler’s beef with Moseley’s comments are beside the point -- unless of course Tyler can provide evidence to back up the accusation. What makes the letter significant is that Jones is back on offense at the seeming expense of one of his chief antagonists.

Jones has yet to declare his intent to run for a second term. The expectation was that he would announce at the state of the city address Jan. 31.

Maybe this was his shot across the bow to a rumored political rival. Or it could be that he was simply standing up for an employee. Whatever the case, it’s a signal that Jones has tired of soaking up body blows, and maybe even that he still wants the job. You can’t govern from your back. You can’t win elections from there either.